Stimulating Beverages: An Ethnobotanical History of Coffee & Chocolate

Coffee and chocolate have become staples in the lives of many people today. Like other psychoactive plants, these have long histories of cultural, medicinal and religious uses in the places in which they originated. This episode discusses the ethnobotanical histories of coffee and chocolate, and examines ways in which both plants helped to transform cultures in places to which the plants and their products were introduced. We illustrate how this was due to their psychoactive properties as well as to the cultural and social significance they were assigned. These plants provide good examples of how the ways in which cultures perceive of plants, change over time.

Production Credits

Presented by:

Tamara Ticktin

Themes and Content by:

Isabella Abbott

Al Keali'i Chock

Will McClatchey

Mylien T. Nguyen

Tamara Ticktin

David Webb

Special Presentations and Content by:

Tony A.B. Cunningham

Catherine Davenport

Orou Gaoue

Lisa X. Gollin

Y. Han Lau

Spencer Leinweber

Mark Merlin

Levon ‘ohai

Joseph Ostraff

Melinda Ostraff

Orlo Steele

Clay Trauernicht

Art Whistler

Namaka Whitehead

Kawika Winter

Post Production Critique by:

Al Keali'i Chock

Momi Kamahele

Kiope Raymond

Botany 105 Students (Fall 2005)

Camera Work by:

David Reedy

David Strauch

Michael B. Thomas

Video and Sound Editing by:

Markus Faigle

David Reedy

David Strauch

Michael B. Thomas

Audio Production by:

Will McClatchey

David Reedy

Consulting by:

Edo Biagoni

Kim Bridges

Pauline Chinn

Valerie McClatchey

Hae Okimoto

Nelda Quinsell

Ingelia White

Funding provided by:

University of Hawai'i, Department of Botany

University of Hawai'i, Information Technology Services

University of Hawai'i, College of Natural Sciences

University of Hawai'i, Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs

National Center for Academic Transformation

University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Chancellor

Inspiration from:

Isabella Abbott

Michael Balick

Brad Bennett

Brent Berlin

Paul Cox

Memory Elvin-Lewis

Timothy Johns

Beatrice Krauss

Walter Lewis

Richard Evans Schultes

Gail Wagner

The Society for Economic Botany

Readings

Supplemental Readings

Standage, T. 2005. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Walker & Company, New York.